New postage stamp honors Rosa Parks

Feb. 10, 2013

Shirley McCauley of Louisville, Kentucky, a niece of Rosa Parks, shares a laugh with Ralph Hunter, founder and president of the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey in Newtonville, during a celebration of the new Rosa Parks postage stamp on Saturday. / Staff photo/Charles J. Olson

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BUENA VISTA — The unveiling Saturday of a new postage stamp honoring the civil rights movement carried a deep connection to the past with the niece of Rosa Parks at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey.

The museum, in partnership with the U.S. Post Office in Newtonville, unveiled a new Rosa Parks postage stamp for Parks’ 100th birthday.

Shirley McCauley of Louisville, Ky, Park’s niece, spoke at the ceremony that was attended by about 125 people.

Parks drove the civil rights movement into new territory when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955.

Her single act of protest launched a citywide boycott and brought nationwide coverage to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggles of African Americans.

McCauley spoke about her personal relationship with her aunt as a surrogate mother and her aunt’s legacy as a civil rights icon.

“As many of you know, she did not have her own children. So she clamored around us, or we clamored around her,” McCauley said. “She loved us, and she loved many, many other children.”

McCauley said she was unaware of her aunt’s role in the civil rights movement until middle school.

“Unlike many of you, growing up I didn’t know who Rosa Parks was. I knew who Auntie Rosa was, but not Rosa Parks. They were two different people, ” McCauley said. “When I was growing up, all I heard about the Montgomery bus boycott was that some lady sat down and wouldn’t up give her seat, then Martin Luther King Jr. took up her banner and he started the civil rights movement.”

McCauley said one day she finally asked her aunt what really happened. Although Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP at the time, and people before her challenged segregation, McCauley thinks her aunt’s famous act was spontaneous.

“I don’t know this for sure; I never challenged Auntie Rosa with this, but I think it just happened,” McCauley said. “She did not plan for this to happen. This was in her heart — that this was wrong.”

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McCauley told the crowd there is a Rosa Parks in everyone’s family, a person who has stood up for what is right.

“She represents the spirit of hope that we have in this country — that we have for our children. She always, always talked about our children because they are our future, and we have got to do better. We are slacking in a whole lot of places. We have got to do better for them, because they need us — they need our hope.

Ralph Hunter, founder and curator of the museum, said one of the biggest positives of holding events such as the stamp unveiling was that it brings people into the museum.

“You interact with those folks and they become part of the exhibit itself.”

The event came together when McCauley’s sister contacted museums across the country looking for venues to unveil the new Parks stamp.

“We try to time some of the exhibits with what’s going on in the world,” Hunter said. “They found us. They went out and talked to museums throughout the country and I called back.”

Hunter also spoke about what Rosa Parks means to him on a personal level.

“Rosa Parks was the black lady, who like my mother, came out of the south not knowing what her rights were,” Hunter said. “To me it’s not black, it’s not white, it’s human rights.”

The museum also used the unveiling to launch the two new exhibits that decorated the walls of the main gallery where McCauley spoke.

On display were photographs by local visual artist Glynnis Reed and rare newspapers from the collection of Paul Gibson of Willingboro.

Glynnis Reed could not attend the event, but her parents Delbert and Iris Reed of Egg Harbor Township were on hand to comment on their daughter’s work and the opportunities she was afforded in life because of people like Rosa Parks.

“Mrs. Parks was an iconic figure,” said Iris Reed. “A lot of things my daughter is able to do I could have never envisioned.”

The archival newspapers detailed landmark moments in African American history, from as far back as slave rebellions and insurrections in the 1700s, to the end of school segregation in the 1950s, culminating with the election of the nation’s first African American President Barack Obama in 2008.

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